Cafe Society...

...chippies, icecream vans, pies and Welsh-Italians

Sadly Hotpots is no more - the lease came to an end and they decided not to renew.
For earlier thoughts on cafes in Aberkenfig and South Wales and the delights of Hotpots see earlier post:
 Hitchin's, brilliant breafasts and the old sweetshop

The post got a response from a descendant of Mr Moruzzi who used to run the cafe in the square when I was growing up. As said in earlier post - this was a typical Welsh/Italian caff as described in "Lime, Lemon and Sarsparilla"
Lime,lemon and sarsaparilla

[Just had a quick google and discovered the first body found washed up after the sinking of the Andora Star was a Moruzzi:
wiki SS Arandora Star

This was the ship transporting "prisoners of war"  where many British Italian men lost their lives and is featured in the book.]

Anyway - back to caffs - What I really remember Mr Moruzzi for is his ice-cream! He made it himself and it was wonderful.  And in the days before freezers in the sixties and early seventies ice-cream did seem more special. There were Lyon's Maid and Walls and the icecream vans - and that was it. These were the days when whippy ice-cream had started and it was popuar with ice-cream vans - although I do remember an ice-cream van called "Langford's" that also did nice ice-cream.

Moruzzi's was also somewhere you could buy a bar of chocolate on a Sunday evening. As said earlier - I never hung out there, but was always impressed by those that did.

I love visiting traditional Welsh/Italian (Italian/Welsh?) caffs in South Wales and here are still a few around in valleys towns and villages. And Fulgoni's restaurant in Porthcawl still make their wonderful ice-cream but whether they make it or not now depends on the weather ! In the summer you can buy it at Rest Bay as well as their restaurant and I often drag friends to Porthcawl for a Fulgoni's!

Over on an Aberkenfig Facebook discussion site, "You know you're from Aberkenfig..." all sorts of cafe memories have emerged resulting from a memory of "steamed pies":
 facebook: You know you're from Aberkenfig...

I do remember that the bottom chip shop run by Mario Crucci used to heat pies by dropping them into the chip fat. I think before microwaving the top chippie had a hot cabinet but would also do fat dunking on request.

Hitchin's, Brilliant Breakfasts and the Old Sweet Shop...

My friend and colleague Graham was visiting me and around interruptions by Welsh Water and an Irish gentleman trying to sell me new guttering we decided to go for lunch.

In the "  old days" we had Moruzzi's - a typical "Bracchi" Welsh-Italian caff as wonderfully evoked in this book by Colin Hughes.
Lime,lemon and sarsaparilla
Mr Moruzzi made his own icecream and it was very cool to hang around the caff when I was young, but I was never that cool!

Now we have two cafes and I've visited both. One is in the square - Catrina's - and there is  Hot Pots at the top end of the village, on the way to Tondu.

Treat of the day was Hot Pots - I had a brilliant breakfast and Graham had a veggie curry jacket potato with a big pot of tea between us. Hot Pots is what was Hitchin's- a grocery store and off licence, when one could only buy booze from the pub or offie - now there are three general grocers all selling alcohol and it's hard to believe that buying alcohol was less easy a few decades ago.

I was convinced that Hot Pots had been the strange sweet shop I remembered from my childhood, but it seems it was next-door and is now a house. Hot Pots has great windows and pillars and lots of pictures and Aberkenfig memorobillia as well as fab food! To my surprise and pleasure my ex-neighbour walked in while we were there. Christine lived several doors up from me and was part of the general gang of kids who all hung out together in the sixties. She's recently returned to the village  and filled some gaps for me re people and places.

Later I was chatting to Steven my neighbour (another of the gang who has been living back in our street for some time) and talking about shops old and new when we got onto "Chistmas clubs" and catalogues. Like many predominantly working class places, saving money with a local shop for your Christmas booze and/or food was quite common. As was getting clothes and presents from catalogues for which you had a "club" as well. I also recall the "Provident" where you would pay regularly into a fund for "cheques" which you used in cetain shops.

Steven and I were also reminiscing on all the callers and deliveries in those days. As well as the Provident, there was "Blooms" of Cardiff  with his van a cornucopia of  household goods and clothes and most things you requested - a more modern version of the old tally men* and another way of getting credit before our flexible friend.
Looks like they're still going and moving with the times:
Blooms of Cardiff


Insurance men and the rent man were also regular callers as were the bakery van (the Co-operative Society I think) and Yeoman's the veg man and a fish seller I seem to remember as well...

It was all very busy and very like Peter Hall's account of  Vanmen and Collectors:
 Dragged up in the West Riding: My Mother


* I've read about tally men in a Bernice Rubens novel - possibly "Brothers". Tally men were itinerant sellers and in the Welsh valleys I believe they were often Jewish. Will write more if and when I find something...